Government doing everything to save convicted Pinay – Binay

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday assured the parents of a Filipina on death row in Indonesia that the government is exhausting all legal remedies to save their daughter.

Binay, presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers’ concerns, told Mary Jane Veloso’s parents during a meeting at the Makati City Hall that the government will file a second appeal before the Indonesian Supreme Court.

Veloso, 30, was sentenced to die by firing squad after she was apprehended at Java’s Yogyakarta Airport in April 2010 for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her luggage.

Veloso’s mother Celia denied that the heroin seized from her daughter’s luggage was hers. She said the illegal drugs were secretly put there by a certain Christine, whom she said was the wife of her daughter’s god-brother or kinakapatid.

“My daughter was really not aware (of the hidden heroin),” Celia told the Vice President, noting that her daughter was just carrying two small bags.

“But this Christine was really intelligent. She bought my daughter lots of clothes. The day Mary Jane left for Indonesia, Christine found a way to enter the (airport) and handed the luggage,” she said in Filipino.

The couple sought Binay’s help after the Indonesian Supreme Court denied the Philippine government’s request for a judicial review of Veloso’s case in hopes of saving her from the death penalty.

In their appeal for judicial review, Veloso’s lawyers argued that she was not provided with a capable translator during her trial.

Jakarta previously said it would wait for any outstanding legal appeals to conclude before executing all 10 drug convicts, including Veloso, at the same time.